Television: Inspired by 'Sex'

Darren Star, creator of "Sex and the City," launches a new series on ABC later this season called "Cashmere Mafia," in which four successful women in Manhattan support one another through thick, thin and happy hour.

It is not, Star insists, a sequel.

"There are so many elements of 'Sex and the City' that are different from this show that I'm not even going to go through the laundry list of them," he said.

If Star is really trying to distance himself from his previous hit, it might be his biggest misstep since "Central Park West." Three years after they (supposedly) said farewell, Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte are still red hot. In addition to the, uh, inspired "Mafia," there's NBC's eerily similar drama, "Lipstick Jungle," created by Candace Bushnell, the real-life Carrie Bradshaw.

TBS continues to draw impressive numbers with its steady stream of reruns of "Sex," and a big-budget film version, starring all of the original cast, will soon go into production. Sarah Jessica Parker has managed to remain a big enough star to shill her own perfume and clothing line, despite the fact that her film career is about as thin as her waistline.

Other producers are happy to claim a "Sex" lineage, even if Star doesn't want to. Joe Simpson, one of the producers for the upcoming ABC drama, "The Women's Murder Club," describes his new show as a hybrid between "Sex and the City" and "CSI."

His partner, Liz Craft, suggested that the HBO series opened the door for other programs featuring women who could be in the same room together without starting a catfight.

"There's a perception out there that women tear each other down in the workplace, and while that certainly happens, I think that more often, women buoy each other," she said.

Craft has a point. Women on television have, as a whole, gotten stronger and savvier in recent years, and "Sex" has played a role in that. But it also sent out some dangerous signals.

The series, along with "Ally McBeal," revolved almost solely around sexy women trying to find a man (or, during sweeps, another gorgeous woman). Carrie and company may have been top-notch professionals, but you wouldn't have known it by watching most episodes. They were too busy discussing the latest line of vibrators.

There's nothing wrong with a sitcom obsessed with sex, but I worry that network TV thinks that was the key to the show's success. They might be right, but I doubt it. It was the frank conversation and female bonding that drove viewers to that show, not the fact that Kim Cattrell exposed her chest every other week.

"'Sex and the City' is not really about sex," said L.S. Kim, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California in Santa Cruz who teaches about television and feminism. "Ultimately, it is about friendship and surviving in a world with many choices."

I haven't seen "Lipstick Jungle" yet, but the title has me a little worried, as does the fact that it stars Brooke Shields. I'm also pessimistic about "Murder Club," if only because producer Simpson is the father and manager for Jessica and Ashlee Simpson. How long before star Angie Harmon slips into a pair of Daisy Dukes?

I have watched the pilot for "Cashmere Mafia." By the end, Lucy Liu has danced around the office in the skimpiest of outfits, Bonnie Somerville has made out with another woman and Miranda Otto has promised her cheating husband that she plans to have an affair with one of their mutual friends.

"This is a show that examines women in business and the particular challenges they face as career women," Star said.

Uh, really? I can't remember the last time a colleague around here felt that experimenting with lesbianism had anything to do with her career, but maybe I'm in the wrong department.

I hope Star's description is more accurate in future episodes, just as I hope that "Lipstick Jungle" and other "inspired" series go beyond bawdy talk.

But count Kim among the skeptics.

"'R-rated' material on cable is not merely about titillation or foul language. It allows cable to can express a more serious tone," she said. "We'll see what network versions of 'SATC' will be like, but a network program which depends on ratings and advertisers cannot achieve much depth and is often derivative."

If that's so, "Sex and the City" will not have led the way for a new era of smart TV, but will have been the catalyst for a return to another groundbreaking show: "Charlie's Angels."

njustin@startribune.com • 612-673-7431